Re-membering Culture: Erasure and Renewal in Hmong American Education

There is a need for a critical race analysis of Hmong American education that places race and racism at the center of analysis, highlights Whiteness as property and recognizes the fluid and situated racialization of Hmong American students. Majoritarian explanations of inequities in Hmong American education often describe Hmong American student and family experiences in terms of ‘culture clash’ or profound cultural difference, thereby obscuring the ways in which Hmong American communities have been racialized as refugees, as Southeast Asians, and as ‘Blackened’ and gendered low income communities of color. Further, these racializing processes significantly impact the ways in which Hmong American students are situated and shaped by Whiteness as property within schools.

Similar to other Asian American students, Southeast Asian American students are often stereotyped by the popular press as hardworking and high-achieving model minorities. On the other hand, Southeast Asian American youth are also depicted as low-achieving high school dropouts involved in gangs. The realities of academic performance and persistence among Southeast Asian American students are far more complex than either image suggests. This article explores the various explanations for the struggles, successes, and educational experiences of Southeast Asian students. To highlight differences across ethnic groups, we review the literature on each Southeast Asian ethnic group separately and examine the successes and continuing struggles facing first- and second-generation Vietnamese American, Cambodian American, Hmong American, and Lao American students in the United States.

Re-membering Culture: Erasure and Renewal in Hmong American Education is a valuable contribution to the growing field of critical Hmong studies and education studies in general. This ethnographic study critically examines power dynamics between U.S. schools and Hmong Americans by centering narratives that highlight Hmong knowledge systems. The book provides insights from over 50 Hmong American leaders, parents, students, and district staff (Hmong and non-Hmong) that exemplifies re-membering, the recovery of culture and history to reclaim rights, space, and voice in the present. Although education is often seen as the great equalizer, especially for immigrants and refugees, the realities of persistent racial equity gaps among Hmong Americans challenge this liberal narrative on schooling. The author offers a nuanced analysis of how schools contribute to the erasure of Hmong culture and identity. The book provides examples of how the Hmong community has refused hegemonic logic and re- claimed their culture and identity to dismantle the assumption that Western schools are designed for all students to succeed.

Re‐membering culture: Erasure and renewal in Hmong American education By BicNgo. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2024. 248 pp.